Why Are We Only Now Talking About Facebook And Elections?

Why Are We Only Now Talking About Facebook And Elections?
"As I wrote earlier today, the story of Cambridge Analytica that the press, public and elected officials seem to have fixated on is that of a rogue company run amok with breached data that manipulated unwitting Americans into electing the candidate of the company’s choice (the company denies all of the allegations). 
A key thread of the narrative over the last three days has centered on the alleged impact of the company’s data analysis on the 2016 presidential election with the undertone that if true, the company’s actions somehow represent something new and unsettling in using data to advance a political campaign. 
To add a bit of perspective to this debate, it is worth looking back at two key ways in which the Obama campaign pioneered the modern data-driven campaign that is at the center of the Cambridge Analytica debate.
At the time of his election and reelection, Obama’s data analytics researchers were heralded as technology heroes for the way they modernized how political campaigns wrangle data in the pursuit of votes. 
Outlets sang their praises as “digital masterminds” and lauded their “unorthodox” approaches..."
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